I sat staring at Dad's chair the next day, wondering if he would have done the same thing. Was putting Berk under siege really a good idea?
Sensing my concern, Toothless nudged my arm with his head and made a purring noise. I scratched under his chin, smiling. No matter what happened, no matter what mistakes I made, Toothless was always there to reassure me.
Just at that moment, Astrid came through the door. She was about to say something but she saw my worried face. She sat down next to me and said gently: “What's on your mind?”
I sighed. “Was siege the right thing to do?”
“Why wouldn't it be?”
“Berk is isolated enough as it is,” I said. “Putting it under siege makes it shut off completely.”
She put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “We're safe, though. And a chief protects his own, doesn't he?”
“Yeah,” I sighed again.
She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and got up. “Come on. We need everyone's help to collect food and store it, and that means you, Chief!” She put a hand on her hip. “Come ON, move your butt!”
I smiled and followed Astrid outside. It was like it was yesterday after announcing Berk was going under siege: a commotion of Vikings and dragons running this was and that, either carrying baskets of food or barrels of water. Those who weren't carrying food were carrying logs and wooden planks to build defensive walls around the village.
We flew to the dock to help unload the fishing boats. It had been agreed that one fishing boat would go out and fish each day, so that we didn't run out of food. It's surprising how fast food can disappear when a whole Viking island is under siege.
As I put the last basket of fish along with the others in a wooden cart, I saw a small, fluttering shape moving towards me. It was silhouetted because of the sun so I couldn't make out what it was until it came closer.
As it approached, I saw that it was a Terrible Terror, and that something was attached to its leg.
It landed in front of me, clearly out of breath from its flight. I gently picked it up and took the paper off its leg. The woods scribbled on it in charcoal sent a shiver down my spine:
It's time.
“What does it say?” asked Astrid, who had finished placing her half of the baskets.
I was too worried to say anything at all, so I simply handed her the paper. She read it and her skin went as pale as mine. “Is he coming now?” she asked.
“I don't know, but I'm not taking any risks!” I jumped on to Toothless' back and flew to the food storage house, closely followed by Astrid and Stormfly. We were greeted by the rest of the riders and their dragons.
“What's up?” asked Eret.
“We got a message from Savage,” said Astrid.
“He's coming,” I added, taking the note from Astrid and showing to him. As he passed it around so that the other riders could read it, I stopped and thought for a moment. This message couldn't be taken lightly – I needed to take charge.
“Snotlout and Eret, head to the south of the island and build some makeshift lookout posts in case Savage decides to attack from down there. Take some of the other men with you to make things faster,” I said quickly and without warning. The two were a bit taken aback by my sudden authority, but they knew the importance of the situation and left immediately on their dragons.
“Ruff and Tuff, spread the word that we need more defences around the main village, and around this part of the island if possible.”
“Right,” they said in unison, and after a quick helmet-bang, flew off on their Zippleback.
“Fishlegs, I want you to fly down to the docks and tell the fishermen to stay within earshot of the beach. If they go too far out they could get ambushed.” He was about to leave too, but I added: “I also want you to figure out the safest fishing route that they could take. As well as dragon knowledge, orientation is your thing. Do you think you could do that?”
“Yes, Chief!” Fishlegs gave a salute and quickly headed towards the ships with Meatlug.
“What about us?” asked Astrid.
“We need to go and see Mom and help with the dragons,” I replied, climbing back on to Toothless' back. “If Savage is coming soon, then we'll need them.”
Mom had been in the woods of Berk since yesterday, training smaller dragons such as Terrible Terrors or baby Typhoomerangs to act as lookouts. If Savage was to come now, we'd need as many eyes open as possible.

I thought I was a good chief. I thought I was doing the right things. Fortifying the island, building lookouts posts, training dragons to patrol the coasts...
Little did I know Savage's first attack was something that no one was ready for.

Days after the arrival of Savage's note, I was even more of a nervous wreck than before. I kept looking over my shoulder, glancing this way and that, constantly asking Snotlout if the defences were still up. Mom, Astrid and Toothless tried to calm my nerves, but it was no use, I couldn't be shaken out of it. I nearly dropped a few baskets of fish back into the sea that morning, because my hands were shaking so much.
That evening at dinner, I couldn't eat a thing. Not even the sight of fresh roasted fish made me hungry, so I gave all mine to Toothless and Stormfly. It was as if I was seeing the world in black and white.
As I walked up the stairs to bed, wanting desperately to be able to sleep instead of lying awake all night like for the past few days, I was irritated by Toothless. For some reason he was hyper and kept jumping around everywhere and wanting to play.
“No, bud, not now,” I said sleepily as I got into bed. But Toothless kept on pacing round the room, making more noise than he should do.
“Toothless, just go to sleep!” I said, trying not to snap. The dragon rolled his eyes and lay down on his stone slab, still full of energy.
I lay back and tried to close my eyes, but I couldn't. Part of me didn't want to close my eyes, in case I'd never open them again. So I lay there, like the night before that and the night before that, thinking of what Savage could have meant from “It's time.”

I woke up the next morning, figuring I must have gone to sleep just a few hours earlier. I noticed that Toothless was still fast asleep, probably after staying awake most of the night too because of his sudden burst of energy.
I headed downstairs and saw that Valka wasn't up either, because her helmet was still on the shelf, so I went outside instead and headed to Astrid's house. On the way there I noticed that not many Vikings were up, only a couple could be seen here and there.
I knocked on the door and her mother, Phlegma the Fierce, opened it.
“Hello,” I said politely. “Is Astrid in?”
“Hello Hiccup!” she said kindly, giving me a hug. She often treated me as if I was her son, because I was Astrid's boyfriend. “Yes, yes, she's in. She's a bit under the weather and has been since last night. She's down in the dumps about it, so I'm sure seeing you will make her feel better! Come in, come in!”
I nodded my head politely and climbed up the stairs to Astrid's room. I opened the door, expecting to see her swinging her axe despite being ill, but a shocking sight was there to greet me.
Astrid was indeed under the weather. Her face was as white as snow at Snoggletog, her eyes were surrounded by blue rings and she was lying so still with her eyes closed that anyone could have mistaken her for a corpse.
“Astrid!” I rushed to her side and lifted up her head. She opened her eyes slowly and smiled.
“Hey, babe,” she said in a coarse whisper, and then she drifted off to sleep again.
Oh yeah, a bit under the weather?! I thought angrily to myself. I called for Phlegma, hoping we might be able to find out what made her ill, before it was too late.

Minutes later, I was at Gothi's house, holding Astrid in my arms like a bride. Also with us were Phlegma, Gobber, Valka, Stormfly and Toothless. Gothi motioned to put Astrid down, so I extremely gently lay her down on the fur rug, still resting her head in my hands. I wasn't going to let go for anyone.
Gothi knelt down and lifted up one of Astrid's eyelids. She then looked inside her mouth and did all kinds of different procedures.
Once she was done, she picked up her staff and started writing in the sand at her feet.
“She says...” Gobber started to translate. “Astrid has been poisoned in some way.”
My heart skipped a beat and I turned nearly as pale as her. “Poisoned? How?”
“She doesn't know,” Gobber continued to translate. “What has she eaten recently?”
I scratched the beginning of my stubble and thought for a second. She was fine all day yesterday, but Phlegma said it started last night...
“The only thing she ate last night was the grilled fish,” said Mom, also deeply worried about Astrid. “I also ate some, but I'm fine. Although...”
I turned to her. “What? What do you mean, although?”
“Drago tried to poison me many times with food. At first it made me ill, but then I became immune, so he stopped. So it's possible that it could be the fish she ate last night.” She paused for a second. “Didn't you eat any?”
“No, I gave mine to Toothless and Stormfly because I wasn't hungr--” I stopped. That was why Toothless was hyper. I turned to Phlegma. “Was Stormfly full of energy last night?”
“Aye, she was full of beans.”
That concluded my theory. It was inside the fish. Something poisonous to humans but something that dragons didn't mind eating. Now I had to think – what was it?
I thought back to when all the dragons started falling ill after Mildew has planted those flowers. What had we cured them with? Think, think...
“Scauldron venom!” I shouted, making everyone jump. “Something poisonous to humans but great for dragons! That's it! Savage probably infected the waters where we fish with Scauldron venom! We need to warn everyone!” I gently put Astrid's head down and jumped on Toothless' back. We rushed outside to warn the fishermen not to distribute any more fish, but from the sight of Vikings lying on the ground here and there, we figured it was too late.
All of Berk was infected.